NEW YORK -- NFL Films president Steve Sabol, half of the father-son team that revolutionized sports broadcasting and mythologized pro football into the country's favorite sport, died Tuesday from brain cancer. He was 69.

In March 2011, Sabol was diagnosed with a tumor on the left side of his brain after being hospitalized for a seizure.

He started working with his father, Ed -- NFL Films' founder -- in 1964, and they introduced a series of innovations now taken for granted today, from slow-motion replays to sticking microphones on coaches and players.

"Steve Sabol was the creative genius behind the remarkable work of NFL Films," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement from the league confirming Sabol's death. "Steve's passion for football was matched by his incredible talent and energy. Steve's legacy will be part of the NFL forever. He was a major contributor to the success of the NFL, a man who changed the way we look at football and sports, and a great friend."

Ed Sabol was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year. The two received the Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2003.

Steve Sabol has also received the Pete Rozelle Award, presented each year to someone who made an outstanding contribution to professional football. In 2007, the Hall of Fame honored him with the Dan Reeves Pioneer Award.

"We see the game as art as much as sport," he told The Associated Press before his father's Hall induction. "That helped us nurture not only the game's traditions but to develop its mythology: America's Team, The Catch, The Frozen Tundra."

Sabol received 35 Emmys for writing, cinematography, editing, directing and producing. No one else had ever earned that many Emmys in as many different categories.

He began his career as a cinematographer under his father. He was the perfect fit for the job: an all-Rocky Mountain Conference running back at Colorado College majoring in art history.

The Sabols treated sport as film and changed the way Americans watched and perceived games. Their advances included everything from reverse angle replays to setting highlights to pop music.

"Today of course those techniques are so common it's hard to imagine just how radical they once were," the younger Sabol told the AP last year. "Believe me, it wasn't always easy getting people to accept them, but I think it was worth the effort."

Steve Sabol, the longtime NFL Films president who along with his father Ed Sabol helped define the way the American public saw professional football, has died at the age of 69.

Sabol confirmed last year, shortly before he introduced his dad at his Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony, that he was suffering from brain cancer.

Few people are able to turn their passions into a great professional legacy like the Sabols, who loved football, filmmaking and family and managed to combine them all into one when Ed and Steve started NFL Films together. Ed was just a guy with a movie camera and a vision when he convinced the NFL to let him and his 20-year-old son be the official videographers of the 1962 NFL Championship Game, but before long the two-man video crew had become a part of the NFL. And over the next half century NFL Films became a major part of how America viewed both sports and television.

If you’ve enjoyed seeing super slow-motion replays, or hearing the sounds of players wearing microphones during games, or laughing at the blooper reels that began with “Football Follies,” you can thank NFL Films.

“Steve Sabol was the creative genius behind the remarkable work of NFL Films,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “Steve’s passion for football was matched by his incredible talent and energy. Steve’s legacy will be part of the NFL forever. He was a major contributor to the success of the NFL, a man who changed the way we look at football and sports, and a great friend.”

He was never a player, coach, commissioner or team owner, but for his contributions to the game from behind the camera and in the editing room, Steve Sabol will be remembered as one of the NFL’s great visionaries.

Quick question tho...the background on the page is apparently from Prometheus...I know this because when I clicked on it it took me to an iTunes page about the movie..my question is, was that intentional? Just wondering as I don't recall seeing that anywhere before.

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September 19th, 2012, 10:38 am

njroar

Player of the Year - Offense

Joined: September 25th, 2007, 3:20 amPosts: 2841

Re: NFL Films Steve Sabol Dies At 69

yeah, the backgrounds are all rotational that link elsewhere. Background links are becoming pretty common, but it's an annoyance of mine.

September 19th, 2012, 10:45 am

TheRealWags

Modmin Dude

Joined: December 31st, 2004, 9:55 amPosts: 12296

Re: NFL Films Steve Sabol Dies At 69

njroar wrote:

yeah, the backgrounds are all rotational that link elsewhere. Background links are becoming pretty common, but it's an annoyance of mine.

and its something that will likely stop someone like me from consistently visiting a site that uses them...........

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September 19th, 2012, 11:08 am

regularjoe12

Off. Coordinator – Joe Lombardi

Joined: March 30th, 2006, 12:48 amPosts: 3987Location: Davison Mi

Re: NFL Films Steve Sabol Dies At 69

If anyone hasn't seen it, try to find/watch "Joe and the giant bean" kinda parodies Joe Namaths Superbowl into a fairy tail. by far and away NFL Films best work IMO.

RIP Steve, You will be missed.

EDIT: Joe and the MAGIC Bean...

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Last edited by regularjoe12 on September 20th, 2012, 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.